morning - amazon s3the jordan still rolls between us and that good land. unbelief shudders, but let...

M O R N I N GA N D

E V E N I N GU P D A T E D L A N G U A G E E D I T I O N

C H A R L E S S P U R G E O N

DH_MorningEvening_Updated_final_int.indd 3 8/31/16 10:20 am

Morning and Evening: Updated Language Edition © 2016 by Discovery House

All rights reserved. Updated by Paul Muckley

Discovery House is affiliated with Our Daily Bread Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Requests for permission to quote from this book should be directed to: Permissions Department, Discovery House, P.O. Box 3566, Grand Rapids, MI 49501,

or contact us by e-mail at [email protected].

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, niv®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011

by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered

in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked esv are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (esv®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked kjv are from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked nkjv are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked nlt are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation.

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Interior design by Beth Shagene

ISBN: 978-1-62707-479-7

Printed in the United States of America

First printing in 2016


5

Introduction

Charles Haddon Spurgeon is known as “The Prince of Preachers” for the thousands of sermons he delivered in England in the latter half of the nine-teenth century. But he is also remembered, more than a hundred years after his death, for a book of daily readings entitled Morning and Evening.

This edition of Spurgeon’s beloved devotional has been updated for ease of reading in the twenty-first century. Old styles (for example, thee, ye, and -est verb endings) have been modernized; Spurgeon’s often very long sen-tences have been divided into multiple sentences; and paragraph breaks have been inserted where appropriate. Male-specific terms for readership have generally been made gender-inclusive, and less-familiar references (to writers and preachers of history or to characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress, a favorite of Spurgeon) have been given brief explanations. British spellings (such as colour and sceptre) have been Americanized.

Spurgeon quoted and alluded to Scripture with regularity, and chapter-and-verse references have been added to each instance. Modern translations have been used throughout this devotional—unless otherwise noted, quo-tations are from the New International Version of the Bible. The English Standard Version (esv), New King James Version (nkjv), and New Living Translation (nlt) are also represented, joined by a few verses from the ven-erable King James Version (kjv) that Spurgeon himself quoted. A complete Scripture index follows the December 31 reading.

Changes have been made carefully so as never to change Spurgeon’s meaning; they are intended to bring his passionate love of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Scripture into the clearest focus for readers today. We pray that this edition of Morning and Evening will stimulate you to greater appreciation for and commitment to the God who Spurgeon served so effectively.

The Publishers


He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

ISAIAH 50:4

My soul shall be satisf ied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.

PSALM 63:5–6 nkjv


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M O R N I N G

January 1

They ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.JOSHUA 5:12 esv

Israel’s weary wanderings were over, and the promised rest was attained. No more moving tents, fiery serpents, fierce Amalekites, and howling wilderness: they came to the land which flowed with milk and honey, and they ate the corn that was already there. Perhaps this year, my beloved Christian reader, this may be the case for you or for me. The prospect is joyful, and when faith becomes reality, will yield a pure delight. To be with Jesus, in the “special rest still waiting for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9 nlt), is an encouraging hope indeed—and to expect this glory so soon is a double bliss.

The Jordan still rolls between us and that good land. Unbelief shudders, but let us rest assured that we have already experienced more ills than death at its worst could cause us. May we banish every fearful thought, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, in the prospect that this year we might begin to be forever with the Lord.

A part of the Christian host will this year remain on earth, to do service for their Lord. If this is the case for us, there is no reason why the text should not still be true: “We who have believed do enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:3 nkjv). The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance; He gives us “glory begun below,” to borrow a phrase from the Isaac Watts hymn “Marching to Zion.”

In heaven the saints are secure, and so we on earth are preserved in Christ Jesus. There they triumph over their enemies, and we have victories too. Heavenly spirits enjoy communion with their Lord, and this is not denied to us—they rest in His love, and we have perfect peace in Him; they sing His praise, and it is our privilege to bless Him too.

We will this year gather, as Watts says, “celestial fruits on earthly ground,” where faith and hope have made the desert like the garden of the Lord. Long ago man ate angels’ food—why not now? Oh, for the grace to feed on Jesus, to eat the fruit of the land of Canaan this year!


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E V E N I N G

January 1

We will be glad and rejoice in you.SONG OF SOLOMON 1:4 nkjv

We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will not open the gates of the year to miserable notes but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy and the high sounding cymbals of gladness. “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation” (Psalm 95:1). We, the called and faithful and chosen, will drive away our grief and set up banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament their troubles—we have the sweet-ening tree to cast into Marah’s bitter pool (Exodus 15:23–26), and with joy will magnify the Lord.

Eternal Spirit, our capable Comforter, we who are the temples in which you dwell will never stop adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. We are resolved that Jesus must have the crown of our heart’s delight; we will not dishonor our Bridegroom by mourning in his presence. We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies—so let us rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem.

Glad and rejoice, two words with one sense: double joy, blessedness upon blessedness. Need there be any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? Do not people of grace find their Lord to be the pleasant-smelling camphire and spikenard, calamus and cinnamon even now? What better fragrance would they have in heaven itself? We will be glad and rejoice in you. That last word is the meat in the dish, the kernel of the nut, the soul of the text. What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, yes, every drop of their fullness, in Him!

Oh, sweet Lord Jesus, since you are right now the portion of your people, favor us this year with such a sense of your preciousness that from the first to the last day, we may be glad and rejoice in you. Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus.


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M O R N I N G

January 2

Continue earnestly in prayer.COLOSSIANS 4:2 nkjv

It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Scripture is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26 esv), and just as we are about to close the volume, the “Amen” of an earnest sup-plication meets our ear.

Specific examples are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob, there a Daniel who prayed three times a day, and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see Elijah; in the dungeon Paul and Silas. We have multitudes of commands and myriads of promises. What does this teach us but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer?

We may be certain that whatever God made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our needs that, until we are in heaven, we must not cease to pray.

Do you think you have no needs? Then I fear you don’t know your pov-erty. Do you feel as though you don’t need mercy from God? Then may the Lord’s mercy show you your misery!

A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint fall-ing asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian. If you are a child of God, you will seek your Father’s face and live in your Father’s love.

Pray that this year you might be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ; and enter more often into the banquet-house of His love. Pray that you might be an example and a blessing to others, and live more to the glory of your Master. The motto for this year must be, Con-tinue earnestly in prayer.


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January 2

Let the peoples renew their strength.ISAIAH 41:1 esv

All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continues by itself. “You renew the face of the ground,” was the psalmist’s utterance (104:30). Even the trees, which don’t wear themselves down with care or shorten their lives with labor, must drink of the rain of heaven and soak up hidden trea-sures of the soil. The cedars of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live because day by day they are full of vitality drawn from the earth.

Neither can human life be sustained without renewal from God. As it is necessary to repair the waste of the body by frequent meals, so we must repair the waste of the soul by feeding upon the Book of God, or by listening to the Word being preached, or by the soul-sustaining table of the ordinances.

How depressed are our graces when these means are neglected! What poor starving people are those saints who live without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! If our piety can live without God, it is not of divine creation. It is only a dream, for if God had caused it, it would wait upon Him as the flowers wait upon the dew.

Without constant restoration, we are not ready for the perpetual assaults of hell, or the stern afflictions of heaven, or even for the strife within our-selves. When the whirlwind is loosed, woe to the tree that has not drunk deeply and grasped the rock with many intertwisted roots. When storms arise, woe to the sailors who have not strengthened their mast, cast their anchor, or sought a haven.

If we suffer the good to grow weaker, the evil will surely gather strength. It will struggle desperately to master us; and a painful desolation and lamen-table disgrace may follow. Let us draw near to the footstool of divine mercy in humble prayer, and we will realize the fulfilment of the promise, “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31 esv).


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M O R N I N G

January 3

“I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people.”ISAIAH 49:8 esv

Jesus Christ is himself the sum and substance of the covenant, and as one of its gifts, He is the property of every believer. Christian, can you estimate what you have received in Christ?

“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body” (Colossians 2:9 nlt). Consider that word God and its infinity, and then meditate on the perfect man and all His beauty, because all that Christ, as God and man, ever had or can have, is yours—out of pure free favor, passed over to you to be your assigned property forever. Our blessed Jesus, as God, is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Does it console you to know that all these great and glorious attributes are altogether yours?

Does Jesus have power? That power is yours to support and strengthen you, to overcome your enemies, and to preserve you even to the end. Does Jesus have love? Well, there is not a drop of love in His heart which is not yours; you can dive into the immense ocean of His love, and say of it all, “It is mine.” Does Jesus have justice? It may seem a stern attribute, but even that is yours—for He will by His justice ensure that all which is promised to you in the covenant of grace will most certainly be given. And all that He has as perfect man is yours. As a perfect man the Father’s delight was upon Him. He stood accepted by the Most High.

Oh, believer, God’s acceptance of Christ is your acceptance. Do you know that the same love the Father set on a perfect Christ, He sets on you now? All that Christ did is yours. That perfect righteousness which Jesus worked out, when through His stainless life He kept the law and made it honorable, is yours and is imputed to you.

Christ is in the covenant.My God, I am thine—what a comfort divine!

What a blessing to know that the Savior is mine!In the heavenly Lamb thrice happy I am,

And my heart it doth dance at the sound of his name.“My God, I Am Thine,” CHARLES WESLEY (1749)


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January 3

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’”

LUKE 3:4 nkjv

The voice crying in the wilderness demanded a way for the Lord, a way prepared, and a way prepared in the wilderness. I would be attentive to the Master’s proclamation, and give Him a road into my heart, cast up by gra-cious operations, through the desert of my nature. The four directions in Isaiah 40:4 must have my serious attention.

Every valley must be exalted. Low and groveling thoughts of God must be given up; doubting and despairing must be removed; and self-seeking and carnal delights must be forsaken. Across these deep valleys a glorious cause-way of grace must be raised.

Every mountain and hill shall be laid low. Proud self-sufficiency and boastful self-righteousness must be leveled, to make a highway for the King of kings. Divine fellowship is never promised to haughty, high-minded sin-ners. The Lord has respect to the lowly, and visits the contrite in heart—but the lofty are an abomination to Him. My soul, beg the Holy Spirit to set you right in this respect.

The crooked shall be made straight. The wavering heart must have marked out for it a straight path of decision for God and holiness. Double-minded people are strangers to the God of truth. My soul, take heed that you are in all things honest and true, as in the sight of the heart-searching God.

The rough places shall be made smooth. Stumbling blocks of sin must be removed, and thorns and briers of rebellion uprooted. So great a visitor must not find miry ways and stony places when He comes to honor His favored ones with His company. Oh, that this evening the Lord may find in my heart a highway made ready by His grace, that He may make a triumphal progress through the utmost bounds of my soul—from the beginning of this year even to the end of it.


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January 4

Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2 PETER 3:18 kjv

Grow in grace—not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than

you have believed before. Let faith increase in fullness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed.

Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward—having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fel-lowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

The person who doesn’t grow in the knowledge of Jesus refuses to be blessed. To know Him is “eternal life” ( John 17:3), and to advance in the knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. The person who does not long to know more of Christ knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever has sipped this wine will thirst for more, because even though Christ does satisfy, it is such a satisfaction that the appetite is not sated, but whetted.

If you know the love of Jesus—“as the deer longs for streams of water” (Psalm 42:1 nlt)—so will you long after deeper drafts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you do not love Him, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.”

Absence from Christ is hell; the presence of Jesus is heaven. Do not be content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, and in His future royal advent. Live close to the Cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect understanding of His love to us, are among the best tests of growth in grace.


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January 4

And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

GENESIS 42:8 esv

This morning our desire was for growth in our acquaintance with the Lord Jesus; it may be well tonight to consider a related topic—namely, our heav-enly Joseph’s knowledge of us. This was most blessedly perfect long before we had the slightest knowledge of Him. “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).

Before we had a being in the world we had a being in His heart. When we were enemies to Him, He knew us—our misery, our madness, and our wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despair and repentance, viewing Him only as a judge and ruler, He viewed us as His well-loved brothers and sis-ters, and His heart yearned for us. He never mistook His chosen, but always beheld them as objects of His infinite affection. “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Timothy 2:19 nkjv), is as true of the prodigals who are feeding swine as of the children who sit at the table.

But sadly, we didn’t know our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts from Him, and gave Him no entrance to our love. We mistrusted Him, and gave no credit to His words. We rebelled against Him, and paid Him no loving honor. The Sun of Righ-teousness shone forth, and we could not see Him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth could not perceive it.

Let God be praised, however—those days are over with us. Yet even now we know little of Jesus compared with what He knows of us. We’ve only begun to study Him, but He knows us completely. It is a blessed circumstance that the ignorance is not on His side, for then it would be hopeless for us. He will not say to us, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23), but He will confess our names in the day of His appearing. He will make himself known to us as He will not to the world.


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M O R N I N G

January 5

And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness.

GENESIS 1:4 nlt

Light might well be good since it sprang from that good decree, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). We who enjoy it should be more grateful for it than we are, and see more of God in it and by it. Physical light is said by Solomon to be sweet (Ecclesiastes 11:7), but gospel light is infinitely more precious, for it reveals eternal things and ministers to our immortal nature.

When the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual light and opens our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we behold sin in its true colors and ourselves in our real position. We see the Most Holy God as He reveals himself, the plan of mercy as He defines it, and the world to come as the Word describes it. Spiritual light has many beams and prismatic colors, but whether they are knowledge, joy, holiness, or life, all are divinely good. If the light we receive is good, what must the light source be? How glorious must be the place where He reveals himself! Oh, Lord, since light is so good, give us more of it—and more of yourself, the true light.

But no sooner is there a good thing in the world than a division is neces-sary. Light and darkness have no communion; God has divided them, let us not confuse them. Sons of light must not have fellowship with deeds, doc-trines, or deceits of darkness. The children of the day must be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord’s work, leaving the works of darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever. Our churches should by discipline divide the light from the darkness, and we individually, by our distinct separation from the world, should do the same.

In judgment, in action, in hearing, in teaching, and in association, we must discern between the precious and the vile, and maintain the great dis-tinction which the Lord made upon the world’s first day. Oh, Lord Jesus, be our light throughout the whole of this day, for your light is the light of men.


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January 5

And God saw the light . . .GENESIS 1:4 nkjv

This morning we noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord’s dividing it from the darkness. Now we note the special eye which the Lord had for the light.

And God saw the light—he looked at it with satisfaction, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it “was good” (Genesis 1:4). If the Lord has given you light, dear reader, He looks on that light with peculiar interest—for not only is it dear to Him as His own handiwork, but because it is like himself, for “God is light” (1 John 1:5).

It is pleasant to the believer to know that God’s eye tenderly observes that work of grace which He has begun. He never loses sight of the treasure He has placed in our earthen vessels. Sometimes we cannot see the light, but God always sees the light—and that is much better than our seeing it. Better for the Judge to see my innocence than for me to think I see it. It is very comfortable for me to know that I am one of God’s people—but whether I know it or not, if the Lord knows it, I am safe. This is the foundation: “The Lord knows those who are his” (2 Timothy 2:19).

You may be sighing and groaning because of the sin inside you, mourn-ing over your darkness—yet the Lord sees “light” in your heart, for He has put it there. All the cloudiness and gloom of your soul cannot conceal your light from His gracious eye. You may have sunk low in despondency, even despair—but if your soul has any longing toward Christ, and if you are seek-ing to rest in His finished work, God sees the light.

And He not only sees the light, He also preserves it in you. “I, the Lord, keep it” (Isaiah 27:3 nkjv). This is a precious thought to those who, after anxiously watching and guarding themselves, feel their own powerlessness to do so. God preserves your light by His grace, and He will one day develop it into the splendor of midday, the fullness of glory. The light within you is the dawn of the eternal day.


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